Nov. 1, 2016, 3:50 p.m.

Delaine Eastin, who served eight years as California's top education official, said Tuesday that she intends to be a candidate for governor in 2018.

"I'm a very frustrated person who's been watching from the sidelines for some time now," Eastin said in an interview with The Times.

A Democrat first elected to the Assembly in 1986, Eastin has been out of public office since her second term as superintendent of public instruction ended in 2003. During her tenure, she was a vocal advocate for the state's class-size reduction law.

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Nov. 1, 2016, 3:39 p.m.

More than a week after a joint funeral for Palm Springs police officers Jose “Gil” Vega and Lesley Zerebny, Zerebny's family members have joined supporters of a Nov. 8 ballot measure that intends to speed up executions in California.

Authorities have said John Felix, 26, used an assault rifle with an extended magazine to shoot Zerebny, 27, and Vega, 63, through a metal security gate. Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin has said Felix is to face the death penalty in the Oct. 8 ambush-style attack.

In a statement this week, David Kling, Zerebny's father, and Matt Zerebny, her father-in-law, urged a "yes" vote on Proposition 66, which would change and limit how death row inmates can appeal their cases.

For 30 seconds, no more and no less, Rep. Darrell Issa and Doug Applegate dropped their negative attacks and delivered a more upbeat message in some of their newest commercials.

Applegate, a Democrat making his first appearance in politics, has released a spot that tells a little bit of his story and raises his name profile. Issa, also in a first, has released a new commercial where several women praise the Vista Republican for his work in Congress.

But just as fast as it takes to halfway cook Minute Rice, they were back to their attacks in another round of ads. As before, Applegate went after Issa for backing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, rerunning portions of the infamous video where Trump bragged about groping and other physical contact with women without their consent. Issa, as he has in past ads, brought up the restraining orders that Applegate’s ex-wife obtained against her former husband.

"Darrell appreciates the birthday shout out after he spent the day riding his bike across the district, meeting with voters and working to ensure our veterans get their bonuses paid back in full," said Issa spokesman Calvin Moore.

Nov. 1, 2016, 11:57 a.m.

California's votes cast by mail have now topped the 3 million mark. That number outpaces recent election seasons in raw numbers, but lags behind the 2012 election in terms of the percentage of the ballots that were mailed out.

Daily tracking information compiled by Political Data Inc. shows county elections officials across the state reported that more than 3 million ballots had been mailed in or dropped off as of Monday, eight days before the Nov. 8 election.

Those ballots represent almost two-thirds of the total number of mail-in ballots cast in California during the 2012 presidential election, a sign of the state's rapid growth in permanent vote-by-mail registration.

Nov. 1, 2016, 11:23 a.m.

Proponents of Proposition 62, which would replace California's death penalty with life in prison without parole, this year have focused on emphasizing the financial burden of executions.

But weighing the fiscal impact of the Nov. 8 ballot measure and its competitor, Proposition 66, which aims to speed up the death penalty process, is complicated. Researchers are at odds over the potential expenses and savings of each.

Independent legislative analysts, meanwhile, have found that repealing the death penalty is likely to save taxpayers millions of dollars through lower court and incarceration costs. The price of Proposition 66's attempt to expedite death sentences, they say, is unknown.

Randy Voepel is the mayor of a San Diego suburb and is running unopposed for a seat in the state Assembly.

He also has refused to sign an autograph for a Chinese national because of communism, bragged about his city's failing grade from the American Lung Assn. and compared homeless people accused of stealing copper to the Viet Cong. And he believes climate change is good because "our enemies are on the equator" and warmer temperatures will hurt them.

Voepel's stances and statements could put him out of step with his new colleagues in the Legislature, including those in his own Republican Party.

If you want to vote by mail, you aren't alone. A majority of Californians now cast their votes by absentee, or vote-by-mail, ballot. It's one of the reasons it can take days, or even weeks, to get complete election results.

Vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked on or before election day (next Tuesday) and received by your county elections office no later than three days after election day. To make sure your ballot is received on time, you can also bring it to any polling place in your county between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on election day.